TSP weathers sharp spike in transactions

The recent chaos in the financial markets taxed the Thrift Savings Plan's computer and telephone systems, but TSP employees said on Monday they learned valuable lessons that will aid modernization efforts.

"It was a busy day," TSP executive director Greg Long said of Oct. 10, during a meeting of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. On that day, phone calls to the plan's ThriftLine spiked from a normal volume of around 18,000 to nearly 35,000. "We were slow on the phones [and] on the Web transaction standpoint, but we got it done. This is a lesson for us going forward," Long said. "We're never going to be staffed for tremendous spikes."

Long said that the TSP doesn't plan to increase its staff because a permanent spike in call volume is unlikely.

Long said the TSP call centers were open on Oct. 13, when they normally would have been closed for the Columbus Day holiday, to allow customers to ask questions and air their concerns after the market gyrated wildly on Oct. 10. The TSP extended hours at both call centers, and offered employees overtime pay to arrive early and stay late.

One common question from investors was whether Congress would raid the government securities fund to finance its $700 billion economic bailout package. Long, who said there was no cause for concern, said investors asked the question each time Congress raised the debt ceiling. "By law, the assets in the TSP are held for the individual participants," he said.

Mark Hagerty, the board's chief information officer, said he was less pleased with the performance of the TSP Web site. In the last redesign of the TSP's information technology infrastructure, he said the goal was to keep systems up and running even in the event that usage surged up to four times the normal level. The level of usage on Oct. 10 constituted a surge three times greater than normal, and Hagerty said the success rate for electronic transactions was 92.5 percent. In other cases, participants were instructed to transfer funds by other means.

Hagerty said that success rate was unacceptable. "Our goal is 100 percent, but given the capacities we have at the server level, that's what occurred. It's like making a call on Mother's Day; the circuits get jammed."

As part of the modernization under way, the TSP will include greater capacity, upgrade its servers and improve the plan's ability to track changes.

Interfund transfers surged in September, rising from 67,910 in August to 166,033, as participants moved $4.3 billion into the government securities fund. The G Fund is considered the most stable of the TSP's offerings.